A month after the worst of his troubles seemed to be behind him with his acquittal in the United States Senate impeachment trial, Bill Clinton returned to his Arkansas roots yesterday amid renewed - albeit unsubstantiated - rumours about the state of his marriage.

On a three-day trip to his home state, President Clinton gave priority to a sentimental journey to "the place called Hope", where he dedicated his modest birthplace as a national historic site. As he did so, Rupert Murdoch's television and tabloid empire joined with Mr Clinton's cyberspace enemies to continue their claims that his marriage to Hillary Clinton is again in crisis.

The unsourced rumours, which have been ignored by mainstream newspapers and television in the United States, claim that Mrs Clinton's decision not to accompany the president on his four-day trip to central America earlier this week was part of what the Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge claims is a "trial separation".

Mrs Clinton stayed at home in Washington, claiming that she had aggravated a back problem during a brief skiing weekend in Utah with her husband and daughter Chelsea at the end of February.

Mrs Clinton did not travel to Arkansas with the president either. Instead, she met senior New York state Democrats to discuss the possibility of her standing in elections for the Senate next year.

The rumours of fresh marital discord follow last month's televised interview with Juanita Broaddrick, an Arkansas woman who claims that Mr Clinton raped her in a Little Rock hotel room in 1978, when he was state attorney-general.

The first lady is scheduled to travel with her daughter to North Africa in a week for a visit to three countries.

Mr Clinton's return to Hope is part of a not-so-subtle attempt by the White House to reconsecrate his presidency in the aftermath of the 13-month impeachment crisis. On the day after his acquittal, Mr Clinton travelled to New Hampshire, whose voters rescued his presidential campaign in March 1992, enabling the president to cast himself as "the comeback kid". The visit to Hope, a place which has been central to his rhetoric at difficult stages of his career, is another example of this political choreography. As he visited his birthplace, which has been open to the public since June 1997, Mr Clinton was expected to reconnect with Mack McLarty, who grew up in Hope with him and served as a key White House adviser until last year.

To add to his apparent domestic troubles, however, Mr Clinton's visit to Hope was soured by the decision of the Arkansas state legislature this week to throw out a $500,000 (£330,000) spending plan to help convert the president's birthplace on South Hervey Street into a museum.

One piece of good news for Mr Clinton was the resignation of Kenneth Starr's principal spokesman, amid allegations of unlawful leaking to the media.

Charles Bakaly, spokesman for the Office of the Independent Counsel, quit on Thursday as Mr Starr decided to ask the justice department to consider criminal charges against him.

The charges centre on a New York Times story on January 31, which claimed that Mr Starr had concluded he could indict Mr Clinton on charges arising from the Monica Lewinsky case while he remained president.